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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: frankw1900 who wrote (89471)	4/3/2003 6:55:27 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 281500

Fedayeen use children as shield By Martin Bentham near Basra (Filed: 02/04/2003) Iraqi Fedayeen paramilitaries used children as human shields during a battle with troops, a British tank commander said yesterday. Sgt David Baird, who commands a Challenger 2 tank from C Squadron of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards battle group, said that he had witnessed at least four or five children, aged between five and eight, being grabbed by the scruff of the neck and held by Iraqi fighters as they crossed a road in front of his tank. Sgt Baird said the Iraqis had moments earlier been firing rocket-propelled grenades at his tank. He added that he had been forced to halt any retaliatory fire because of the danger of hitting the children. "We were just to the south east of Basra and we were being fired upon by rocket-propelled grenades," he said. "I could see the Iraqis ahead of us at a crossroads. They were wearing black jump-suits with red shamaghs. They were Fedayeen and I was preparing to fire at them. "They were crossing the road to try and outflank us on the left and, as they crossed, four or five of them grabbed kids by the scruff of their necks and dragged them across with them. They were using them as human shields so that I had to stop firing. "The children were only five to eight years old. There were lots of women and children there. It was a busy crossroads but they didn't seem to care. "I am married with a son of nine months and I just felt disgusted. In this part of the world it seems that life is not held in the same way as we regard it. It was terrible." The incident happened at a crossroads in the village of Kuj Al Mum. Sgt Baird, 32, from Kilwinning, Ayrshire, said that when the Iraqi fighters crossed the road the children were freed and allowed to return to run back to their mothers. He then fired at the building in which they were sheltering, killing about six of them and the gunner destroyed the building. Shortly afterwards his tank was crippled after being hit several times by rocket propelled grenades, which destroyed the tank's sighting system and his machine gun. "It was scary," Sgt Baird said. "I was very, very scared. Initially when I was tilted over to the side I thought that was it. I thought my time was up. Then I felt better when my troop leader called up and my squadron leader called up to rescue us and to retrieve our tanks. "The squadron leader was very calm. He just walked over to us even though there were rounds going off all over." Sgt Baird witnessed the use of children during a battle on Sunday fought by Royal Marines and tanks from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards to the south of Basra which resulted in the capture of two Iraqi villages. He was speaking after returning to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards base to the west of Basra where his tank was yesterday undergoing repairs to make it battle worthy once more. telegraph.co.uk

To: frankw1900 who wrote (89471)	4/3/2003 10:31:11 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Respond to of 281500

This has been an internal debate there. There are the hardliners who want to hold on to power by brute force. There are the moderates who say doing so will cause an uprising so it is best to bend rather than break. And there are those who want to do away with the regime all together. The majority of the public are in this last group, though there are many in the moderate camp as well. The problem is that there is no easy way to bring an end to the regime. For various reasons, it is too costly to invade Iran. As for supporting a revolution, the opposition leadership outside of Iran are a bunch of armchair revolutionaries. They have no credibility at home. This leaves bringing the change from within. And since the hardliners did away with anyone who could pull it off, the only remaining option is to support the moderates until change becomes irreversible.